Without Such Things
by RedRouge
Summary: Complete Satire, Short Story


Without Such Things

"Those were the coolest machines I have ever seen!" he said to me as he threw his empty soda container into the waste bin. It tumbled around a bit inside and then a red light flashed.

"Thank you," it said monotonously as Connor and I stepped onto the sidewalk. Actually, it wasn't really called a sidewalk anymore. Most people just called it "the belt", considering that' all it was; an extremely long conveyer belt that brought you from one block to the other in the city. The only place where people actually walk is around the neighborhoods, assuming you don't have a hover-bike.

As we began to move, I continued to think of the movie Connor and I just watched. I still don't see the difference between that movie and the one we watched a week before. Guns, evil robots, and gigantic war machines; that about sums them both up. We got about three-hundred yards away from the cinema when the belt abruptly stopped and I was thrown off balance and fell forward.

"Isabella are you okay?' asked Connor worriedly.

"Sure, I'm fine...but what the heck happened?"

"Belt must have stopped or jammed up."

Suddenly a voice boomed over the streets from above us. It was coming from the two speakers that were located on the central building every four blocks.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties. So if you would all kindly step off of the belt, it would greatly be appreciated. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The voice was followed by a screech, then a click.

"Excellent, we get to walk two miles to our houses at ten o'clock at night," I said sarcastically.

"Oh well, it's not like we'll have trouble finding our way anyway. The stores never close so we should be fine," explained Connor.

"That's not what I'm so annoyed with, it's the fact that I'm exhausted. That movie made me quite dizzy and it was so loud!"

We started to walk.

"You don't seem like you enjoyed it much," he observed.

"How could I? It seemed as if it was just ninety minutes of machine guns going off and gigantic explosions."

"But how can you not be psyched about those two sports cars ramming into each other at 200 miles an hour in the air?! Oh! And that other guy who blasted that other guy into the wall!"

I rolled my eyes. Connor's excitement didn't sway me at all, but he was quite enthusiastic about it. That's how he was about everything anyway.

"Well I guess that one guy _was_ cute," I added.

"Of course he was. He has to be otherwise, he wouldn't be in the movies in the first place, duh. I remember him fro the other movie we saw," he said.

"Yeah and his posters are all over the shopping mall. He's like one of the biggest movie stars, but I can't remember his name at the moment."

As Connor and I passed another clothing store, I realized that I didn't remember or recognize where we were. Connor noticed it too and he began to look apprehensive as well.

"Wrong turn maybe?" he asked.

I nodded my head. Let's go back a few stores, I thought. But as I looked down the street, I didn't see any that I recognized.

"Let's just keep going until we find a Vodafone to call our parents," I suggested.

Connor agreed. As we took a corner, I was caught in my stare. On an oddly dark street, there was a small store that appeared to be closed. But stores never close and there's _never_ no light! Connor and I got nearer to the doors and started to hear noises and a few voices, but there appeared to be no one inside.

Connor grabbed the door handle and pulled the glass door open, "Come on," he urged.

Hesitantly, I followed. My curiosity took hold of my common sense. As we both got closer and closer towards the back the noises became louder. We entered a doorway covered by long maroon curtains. As we entered the next room, to our disbelief, there appeared to be a screen on the opposite wall with a movie playing on it. No, not a movie, something else. It couldn't be a movie, the people were just there talking to each other. No, it definitely was not a movie. Suddenly, the screen turned black and the lights came on.

A short, stubby man approached us.

"How did you kids manage to get in here, I thought I locked the place up?"

Connor and I did not know what to do or say.

"We're sorry to intrude, we heard some noises, we were lost, and..."

I realized I was rambling, but I quickly forgot what I was saying and what the man asked. I was so amazed with what I just saw. The man seemed to notice and smiled.

"It's just a film I was playing, it's called Maléna." He said.

"Film? Huh? What's that?" asked Connor.

The man laughed and shook his head.

"It's how people used to watch movies."

So it _was _a movie, I thought.

"How can that be? They just look like people in a box," I explained. "And movies are supposed to be on computer chips anyway, right?"

"Oh dear," the man mumbled to himself. "That's only how we see movies today. But back then, movies were something different."

He brought us over towards the back of the room where we were first standing and began to fiddle around with a machine of some sort. He held up this black material with his finger.

"This is film," he said.

"That?! How bizarre. It's just black tape!" Connor said haughtily.

"Oh no," the man replied. He edged us closer to it.

"This simple strip of black tape used to hold the magic of movies and cinema."

I was so fascinated with what the man was telling me. I began pouring out questions.

"Amazing. But what were those people talking about on the screen? I couldn't understand a word what they were saying and there was little yellow writing at the bottom of the screen. Please explain," I begged.

The man smiled again.

"They were speaking in Italian and the writing on the bottom of the screen is called subtitles, for people like yourselves who cannot understand the language."

"That's silly, everyone in the world speaks English though," Connor said.

"My my, I suppose that's how things are nowadays, huh?" the man asked.

"Can we please watch it?" I asked, excited.

The man looked at me.

"Sure. I'll watch it with you."

The man walked to the corner of the room and shut off the lights.

As the three of us watched, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The movie had a funny way of making me feel sad at times or happy. That never happens to me during a movie. The best part was, though, was the fact that I realized that movie actually had a purpose, it was a _story_. No bombs being set off for no reason and no gigantic war machines destroying cities. It was just this woman and this boy and the story that was contained in their beautifully spoken words. And the color, the color that bled through the screen. I stared intently at this one scene where a beautiful auburn tree was in the background. As I looked harder I saw that the auburn of the tree, to me, stood for and represented beauty, purity, and genuinity. I wished I could hold that auburn in my mind forever, because I knew that when the lights turned on, I would have to step into a world without such things.


End file.
